izigame.me

The thing about "Alba" is that it's precisely the kind of game you think it is: a causal game first and last, but one that's incredibly enjoyable and heartwarming, filled with personality and charisma of its own. It's a game that takes place in a sunny island in the Mediterranean (or near it), and playing it really feels like going on a vacation. To me, it felt not only like taking a break from rated M action shooters and brain-wreckling puzzle games, but also a break from reality.
This game qualifies as a walking simulator, as you have objectives in which you go back and forth the island. There aren't puzzles of any kind: objectives are resumed to a simple matter of approaching points of interest and pressing a button, or photographing critters. In fact, nothing proposes any threat to you, even if you try walking off a cliff.
Now, this is very much an open world game. It's not a big world, and you can cross it on foot, quickly getting to where you want, but it still is an open world. The map is actually divided in two: you start in a smaller island before venturing into the main one, and you can travel between the two whenever you want by taking a boat ride.
The map features a different set of places, such as a rice field, some woods, some farms, the town, an old castle and lots of beaches, all of which are seamless integrated. As such, you may end up memorising where's what in the island, but still, the game has no HUD mini-map, meaning that you have to pull up your map to know where you are heading (like in "Far Cry 2"), and I think I would at least have appreciated a compass.
There were moments when I wanted to get faster to certain spots, and ever so often I would hit the Shift button to sprint... only that in this game, the Shift button does the opposite of that: it makes you tiptoe, which is an useless ability with no propose at any moment - maybe it was put in there to sneak closer to some animals, but this was never implemented.
You gradually gain new abilities to solve problems: at one point, you gain a repair kit that will allow you to fix broken things, while in another you gain the ability to dispose of any trash even when away from garbage cans. Sometimes you'll meed to find some animals, and there will be visual cues about where they are.
You'll carry four items: your map, a clipboard, a cellphone and a guide. The clipboard serves as a mission log, monitoring both main and secondary missions (yes: this game has side quests). The cellphone will be used to take pictures of the wildlife in the island - most of them birds. Some animals are required to be photographed in order to progress, but most animals are not mandatory. Plus, you'll get some messages in your phone signalling new assignments. The guide will help keeping track of animals you have photographed and those you still haven't, and in which environment you can find them.
Trying to 100% the game - that is, to photograph all the wildlife, and clean all the place up - may require guides. However, all the achievements in the game (nine in total) are story-related, meaning there's not one for the 100% of completion. Maybe the developers felt that it wasn't necessary: this isn't really a kind of game for completionists.
Visually, the game is superb. I know that, by the time of this writing, praising Unity may be ill-advised, but damn me if this game doesn't look gorgeous. Going for cartoon visuals rather than photorealism, the game is a feast for sore eyes. From the scenarios to the very characters around you, the island really feels like a place busting with life, with birds everywhere, and squirrels dashing through the trees. The gentle soundtrack adds a lot to the game, complementing the vistas without intruding too much. Once again, playing the game transports you to a place so wonderful that it could only exist in fiction (yeah, Secarral doesn't exist).
In the game, you have the very troupe mission of saving the town from a greedy scheme, as a massive hotel is about to be built in the wildlife reserve, which has been abandoned and regarded as hopeless. So it's up to you and your friends to save the island by collecting signatures, fixing broken stuff and collecting litter. Gradually, you can see how the world slowly changes around you due to your deeds - it's not a massive change, but it's always a nice touch. The game lacks a day and night cycle; the passage of time is triggered by your actions, but at best, a day reaches an orange-tinted afternoon, and you start a new day by returning home. Except for a festival at the end, there's no nighttime exploration, and I felt it would have been awesome to see the island at night.
In the end, this is a super hyper mega ultra wholesome game. Not just for how it looks, but also the message it tries to get across to little children: apparently, for every download of the game, a tree is planted, meaning that the message is not just for show. They genuinely believe in it - meanwhile, for a moment of cynicism, see how many trees James Cameron has ever planted for each ticket "Avatar" sold. On top of that, the game is featured in multiple languages, meaning that their message can get across to multiple cultures. I found the Brazilian Portuguese in this game to be pitch perfect.
If this is the kind of game you're looking for, I can't recommend it enough, and I really enjoyed my time with it - it's hard not to love a game like this. It feels like it is served precisely in the right dosage: it's not too short, taking me close to 3.5 hours to complete all the assignments. But it's not too long neither, as it's not bloated and it doesn't overstay its welcome. I would accept a few more side quests, and it would have been nice to carry animals around, and also pet them (like in an Ubisoft game). Besides, it's the ideal kind of game to play without rushing; to play while just admiring your surroundings, to lose yourself in the environment.
It is a little gem of a game, and few times the "Overwhelmingly Positive" rating was so well deserved. "Alba" is a game that is literally making the world a better place.